MDG Advertising | Marketing News and Trends2016-12-09T14:01:05Zhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/feed/atom/WordPressJoanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438392016-12-04T21:18:41Z2016-12-09T14:01:05ZIn our current digital age, content marketing has become the leading link to revenue, reach, and results for businesses of all sizes, all around the world. Yet the rapidly changing nature of digital marketing has left many marketers unsure of how to structure their content marketing in the future. To help businesses in their search...

]]>In our current digital age, content marketing has become the leading link to revenue, reach, and results for businesses of all sizes, all around the world. Yet the rapidly changing nature of digital marketing has left many marketers unsure of how to structure their content marketing in the future. To help businesses in their search for the best content strategies, ContentMarketingInstitute.com compiled the insight of global business leaders on the trends leading content marketing into 2017.

1. The Strength of a Solid Content Marketing Strategy
While industry experts swear by the importance of a solid content marketing strategy, most companies still don’t have one. But research has repeatedly shown that companies that have a strategy and review it consistently are more likely to be successful. But just as important as having a content marketing strategy is developing intelligent content and establishing a streamlined content process that moves it in the right direction in a timely way.

2. The Natural Move Toward Native Advertising
Many marketers consider native advertising to be a positive gateway to content marketing. As a result, more and more companies will start to experiment and thrive through the native promotion of their content.

3. Mobile Matters
With all audiences using at least one type of mobile device, 2017 may be the year of mobile dominance. Experts say it’s a natural evolution to make mobile a top priority in most digital content. Basically, a company’s content must be easily consumed on a mobile device to achieve any results in the future.

4. Social Media for Lead Generation
Now that the benefits of social media are well and widely known, forward-thinking companies will be focused on leveraging social media platforms like Facebook. Instagram, and Snapchat to drive content for lead generation.

5. Video for Visual Value
While most brands limit their video strategy to viral video, marketers should explore its use for visual storytelling by focusing their video efforts on delivering valuable and meaningful information.

6. Real Writing Spells Success
While social media and video have received all of the recent buzz, real writing still matters. In fact, most consumer communication today is text- and story-based and this trend will likely continue.

7. Influencer Marketing with a Solid Strategy
Influencer marketing has always received buzz, but it’s recently become a major topic. While many companies have some kind of influencer strategy in place, only a few have developed a strong influencer strategy designed to yield results.

8. The Emergence of Email with Marketing and Automation
Email remains the most effective marketing channel and has become more important than ever in a content marketing program. Now, marketers are moving from simply sending email to using it with marketing automation.

9. Enterprises Are Establishing Media Organizations
A major movement with much momentum is businesses evolving into media companies. The first to create a media company within its organization was Red Bull Media House. They’re now being followed by PepsiCo and Mondelēz, which are establishing part of their content organizations to serve as profit centers.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437732016-12-04T21:15:34Z2016-12-08T14:01:12ZConsumers have an endless stream of media content at their fingertips today, as well as many digital devices for consuming all of their media options. Even though consumers have so many media choices, they have certain preferences and patterns for their media activity. These tendencies and trends were captured in the second quarter Nielsen Total...

]]>Consumers have an endless stream of media content at their fingertips today, as well as many digital devices for consuming all of their media options. Even though consumers have so many media choices, they have certain preferences and patterns for their media activity. These tendencies and trends were captured in the second quarter Nielsen Total Audience Report, which analyzed the media options consumers chose to use and the ways they used them. Nielsen.com shared the highlights from the report to offer a view of the ways that consumers are making media part of their lives.

Trends in TV
According to the report, adults continue to spend the most time watching TV, with the average adult devoting more than four hours a day to live TV. In addition, black adults were found to watch the highest number of TV channels.

Even though television viewing levels stayed stable to prior years, media choices have become much more segmented with the rising penetration of digital devices and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services that offer alternative sources of viewing content.

Despite the growing popularity of these newer viewing platforms, traditional TV has stayed strong with consumers who have access to both traditional TV and these new viewing sources preferring to use a combination of both. After all, consumers had an average of 206 TV channels available, which paled in comparison to the countless sources of digital viewing content.

The reports showed that TV homes in all demographics that also had SVOD watch only one fewer channel than the respective national averages. But there was a big difference found: the consumers with access to both viewing options were more likely to have higher incomes, be younger, watch less television, and access fewer channels. This included the coveted 18–34 age group.

What Rates in Radio
Radio is still playing well to consumers, with Americans listening to about two hours of radio content a day. And due to the large number of Spanish-language channels increasing listening options, Hispanics tend to listen to the highest number of radio stations.

Discoveries in Digital
According to the report, digital platform penetration has stayed on the rise and resulted in more online content available. These digital platforms allow consumers to access unlimited websites and apps at a moment’s notice, which increases the frequency of their visits.

The research showed that the digital devices with the highest average monthly usage were PCs and smartphones. Adults visited an average of 55 websites on PCs and used 14 apps via tablet, while using 28 apps and visiting 44 websites on their smartphones.

The Shift to Smartphones
The use of smartphones for accessing websites and apps has experienced enormous growth that shows no sign of stopping. As smartphone users are visiting more and more websites, PCs have had a decline in website visits. There clearly has been a shift to smartphone usage, with the average adult visiting 7.5 more websites via smartphone and 7.4 fewer websites on PCs.

While smartphones are used by every age, gender, and culture, Black and Hispanic consumers access more websites via smartphones and use more apps than the national average.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438332016-12-04T21:11:18Z2016-12-07T14:01:16ZTravelers have packed up the traditional ways of travel planning in search of new and novel options for planning trips and picking places to stay. A recent report by AMP and BLITZ of U.S. leisure travelers aged 18 to 55 showed the changing views and values of today’s travelers through their journeys. The report revealed...

]]>Travelers have packed up the traditional ways of travel planning in search of new and novel options for planning trips and picking places to stay. A recent report by AMP and BLITZ of U.S. leisure travelers aged 18 to 55 showed the changing views and values of today’s travelers through their journeys. The report revealed the key factors that inspired people to travel, as well as how they book and plan their trips. It also explored their expectations at their hotel destinations and what they want in customer service. HotelMarketing.com shared the top takeaways from this travel report to offer a clear picture of the where the travel landscape has gone.

Exploring Social for Sales
While traditional word-of-mouth is still the considered the best source of travel inspiration, social media has emerged as a top travel motivator. According to the report, 84% of Millennials and 73% of non-Millennials are highly likely to plan a trip simply due to seeing another person’s travel photos or social media updates. Today, travelers’ photos and stories on Facebook have become extremely influential, especially among Millennials. And social sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are inspiring more travel than traditional sources like TV, movies, and magazines.

Research showed that nearly 70% of Millennials and 59% of all people were following travel brands on social media. The two brands followed most frequently are Uber and Airbnb. Both of these brands excel at sharing content on social media–mentioned brands that travelers follow. They both stand out for their ability to use shared media to create a competitive advantage.

Since social media and advocacy inspire so many travelers to plan future trips, there are a few things brands can do to increase their social influence:

Incorporate social elements into hospitality marketing strategies.

Make the brand voice unique.

Stay current on the standards for engagement set by technology brands

Make the brand experience more socially sharable by including compelling visuals, adding humor, offering plenty of selfie opportunities, and rewarding brand engagement.

Discovering Places for Planning Trips
Consumers are spending more time planning and researching their vacations, and they’re using multiple devices to do so. Travelers typically start their online research around 45 days before booking and most people spend two to three hours conducting research. Travelers mainly use their laptops for such research, but more and more Millennials are exploring options via their smartphones.

The report showed that while travelers are basically satisfied with the trip-planning process, they feel that three specific aspects could be greatly improved:

Most want the ability to book multiple travel elements and then see full itinerary details all in one place.

39% want personalized recommendations to make travel planning more of a pleasure.

31% would like recommendations from a real person.

But unfortunately, few booking experiences currently meet these needs very well. As a result, online travel agents (OTAs) run the risk of losing bookings from new services that are able to simplify and improve the bundling of various trip components.

That’s why the report recommends that hotels and airlines invest in all of their digital properties to provide the most travel-planning resources. And both hotels and OTAs must focus on simplifying the planning process for confused or frustrated travelers.

The Arrival of a New Kind of Travel Agency
In the last 20 years, the emergence of OTAs and direct-supplier ticketing websites has completely changed how travel is booked and posed a major threat to traditional travel agencies.

Today’s travelers have very specific views about how and where they book, as shown in these results:

79% sought ease and customization in the travel-planning process.

56% have used a travel agent in the past.

Travelers feel that the best reasons to use a travel agent are the deals, expert insight, and time savings they provide.

30% preferred travel planning without an agent because they enjoyed the planning process.

25% thought travel agents were too costly.

21% trusted their own judgment more than an agent’s.

Since a whopping 85% of travelers are open to having another party plan their travel, both OTAs and traditional travel agencies need to better serve a traveler’s needs. One way is by helping travelers understand how the expertise and personalization they offer justifies their cost. Another is by simplifying and streamlining the travel-planning process even further in ways that consumers couldn’t do on their own.

]]>Personalizing offerings and messaging presents an incredible opportunity for brands to engage consumers more effectively.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of web users say they’re frustrated with sites that aren’t tailored to their needs, 72% of consumers say they don’t like generic marketing, and 58% of shoppers say they’d like companies to better focus their discount offers.

Yet, despite this clear demand, most brands still feel their personalization efforts aren’t connecting. In fact, one recent survey of marketers found that 60% say their organization struggles with the tactic.

Why? The root cause is that many firms aren’t delivering the personalized experiences that people truly want.

To overcome this challenge, check out the new infographic, 4 Steps to Unlocking the Real Power of Marketing Personalization, which was developed by MDG Advertising. It highlights approaches that have helped our clients significantly improve their targeting strategies.

The areas covered include:

Smart vs. dumb tactics: Personalization means much more than simply including a name. Basic personalization has minimal impact on engagement; however, messages based on specific user actions have a 2X open rate and 3X click rate compared with standard emails. Learn how dynamic targeting is the real key to effective engagement.

Single view of the customer: Consumers say the top benefits of personalization are fewer irrelevant ads/messages, quicker discovery of new products/services, and higher-quality shopping interactions. To deliver these experiences and harness the power of targeting you need rich, constantly updating consumer profiles. Discover why having a single view of the customer is the foundation for success.

Data and systems: Personalization and data/systems aren’t just linked, they’re fundamentally intertwined. Of those marketers who say they don’t personalize content, 59% say a major barrier is technology and 53% say they lack the right data. Explore how investing in the right platforms and people can pay off immensely.

Transparency and security: People remain wary of personalization because they aren’t sure how data is being used and stored. That’s why control and security are so important. Some 60% of online users want to know how a website selects content personalized for them and 88% of consumers prefer to determine how their personal data will be used. Understand how to best address these concerns.

To find out how to make the most of these tactics for your brand, check out 4 Steps to Unlocking the Real Power of Marketing Personalization.

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]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438792016-12-04T21:08:22Z2016-12-05T14:01:32ZWhile healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers have long increased their audiences by targeting patients with certain ailments, the arrival of more domain-centric health data can now provide even healthier results. Today, marketers have the ability to develop their target audiences from either the patient side or the provider side. But focusing on provider data is a...

]]>While healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers have long increased their audiences by targeting patients with certain ailments, the arrival of more domain-centric health data can now provide even healthier results. Today, marketers have the ability to develop their target audiences from either the patient side or the provider side. But focusing on provider data is a much more valuable method because it’s the only way to integrate multiple layers of diagnostic validation data into patient targeting. And provider data offers much greater certainty about a drug’s correlation to a disease, as well as the frequency of that condition in a certain location. MediaPost.com shared more reasons why using provider data can help digital healthcare marketing thrive.

The Privacy of Provider Data
Patient concerns about privacy are at an all-time high, which makes marketers more hesitant to target them online or offline. This poses a challenge to patient-side marketing because it requires the highly sensitive patient data that sufferers don’t want to disclose.

But provider-side data is much more privacy sensitive because the patient is never personally identified or targeted. Instead, this data enables digital marketers to serve ads on the content being viewed by a general market of anonymous patients. In fact, HIPAA standards dictate that a served ad can never be linked to a specific individual.

Providing More Informed Information
In addition to its greater privacy, some of the biggest benefits to using provider-side information are the more informed data it supplies and its ability to be repeated to prioritize a campaign. With the greater accuracy of provider data, marketing becomes more efficient because the data improves the quality of strategic advertising campaign decisions. Finally, provider-side data can also pinpoint where more doctors are needed to raise awareness on public health issues.

By integrating provider data into a digital healthcare marketing strategy, marketers can reach potential patients in safer and smarter ways.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438732016-12-01T18:01:53Z2016-12-02T14:01:54ZPolitics has always been a numbers game, but now the numbers that matter most in digital political strategies are actually the number of years in a person’s age. While party affiliation used to be a top factor in political advertising, that’s now been trumped by age. According to a recent study from political ad agency...

]]>Politics has always been a numbers game, but now the numbers that matter most in digital political strategies are actually the number of years in a person’s age. While party affiliation used to be a top factor in political advertising, that’s now been trumped by age. According to a recent study from political ad agency Spot-On, age has become a much stronger factor than party affiliation when gauging the willingness to use digital advertising in political campaigns. Consider how in the 2016 presidential election, each party’s top digital strategists were in their 30s. MediaPost.com shared more on this new age in digital political strategies.

The Generation Gap in Digital Advertising
With the increasing importance of digital in reaching and engaging voters, it’s not surprising that tech-savvy, younger professionals are using it successfully in today’s campaigns. Spot-On’s study showed that 76% of younger digital professionals in the political field considered themselves to be digital experts.

Overall, younger marketing professionals believed that digital was a better channel than TV for political advertising today. In contrast, older study respondents considered digital to be merely an emerging channel instead of the well-established approach it’s proven to be by younger marketers.

Digital Is Viewed As a Political Positive
The study showed that most younger political strategists were well aware of the potential for digital growth, with 60% either raising or maintaining their level of political online ad spending in 2016. In addition, 20% of respondents had increased their digital spending more than 25% this year.

Their positive view of digital advertising in politics was likely due to the huge improvements in testing and targeting since the last presidential election, as well as the ease of getting real-time information and audience data regarding campaign performance.

Supporting the value of a digital political strategy was the president-elect’s heavy use of Facebook and email in the campaign’s final months. This success proved the power of digital marketing and social media in winning the political game.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438772016-12-01T15:43:02Z2016-12-01T15:43:02ZThe Thanksgiving weekend gave stores a lot of shopping to be thankful for, especially Cyber Monday, which surpassed all sales expectations. Cyber Monday is known as the biggest day of the year for Internet shopping and this year was no exception, with online sales hitting a record high of $3.39 billion as online shoppers searched...

]]>The Thanksgiving weekend gave stores a lot of shopping to be thankful for, especially Cyber Monday, which surpassed all sales expectations. Cyber Monday is known as the biggest day of the year for Internet shopping and this year was no exception, with online sales hitting a record high of $3.39 billion as online shoppers searched for special deals. Fortune.com reported on the reasons why Cyber Monday held a cornucopia of sales for post-Thanksgiving shoppers.

The retailers that saw the highest sales over the Thanksgiving weekend were Walmart, Target, Amazon, Best Buy, and bby. Most consumers were spending on high-ticket or high-tech items like ultra-HD TVs and video gaming consoles.

While Cyber Monday sales exceeded expectations, Adobe reported that the rate of growth on Cyber Monday was lower than on Black Friday, which saw a 21.6% growth rate. This was attributed to a lower sales base than the prior year. Another factor was that Cyber Monday featured fewer deals than Black Friday, according to e-commerce analytics firm Clavis Insight. Brick-and-mortar stores decreased the amount of deals by up to 4%.

Some e-commerce retailers believed that the increase in online sales over the post-Thanksgiving weekend was due to the consumer’s return to shopping after focusing on the recent presidential election. By the holidays, consumers were able to focus their attention on shopping. But the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported that while consumer spending was strong, it declined about 3.5% over the Thanksgiving weekend due to the belief that deals would be available throughout the season. But for the remainder of the holiday shopping season, the NRF has forecast that total retail sales should increase around 3.6% based on high job and wage growth.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438462016-11-30T18:01:46Z2016-11-30T18:01:46ZB2B e-commerce has become big business for companies that target business professionals. In fact, by the end of 2016, B2B e-commerce in the U.S. is expected to reach $855 billion. And this total is predicted to exceed $1 trillion by 2020. This has led many of these businesses to invest a great deal of time...

]]>B2B e-commerce has become big business for companies that target business professionals. In fact, by the end of 2016, B2B e-commerce in the U.S. is expected to reach $855 billion. And this total is predicted to exceed $1 trillion by 2020. This has led many of these businesses to invest a great deal of time and money in restructuring both their organizations and websites to support e-commerce transactions. It’s also led these businesses to try bringing in experienced executives to lead these operations. Now that B2B e-commerce has emerged as an essential component of business, these companies need to change their mindset and delivery tactics by adopting the more B2C-centric approach that their target market now demands. Memeburn.com explained why B2B e-commerce is no longer business as usual and why companies must open their doors to more B2C strategies to stay successful.

Connecting on a Consumer Level
Today, there has been a significant rise in the expectations of the B2B buyer and they now expect a more B2C-like experience. These customers want to self-educate and shop just like regular consumers, rather than spend lots of time talking and buying from a salesperson. Yet while B2B buyer attitudes have changed, the current business model has yet to evolve. This seriously threatens the growth and revenue of B2B organizations.

But B2B e-commerce companies need to understand their customers’ consumer-centric needs. They must restructure their websites to feature the same B2C merchandising tactics, wide selection, and compelling deals, as well as streamline the login experience for greater purchase convenience and ease. In addition, they must offer the kind of personalized upsell and cross-sell typically used on B2C sites. By adopting these consumer-focused e-commerce marketing tactics, these businesses will attract and retain more new and existing customers.

Hiring Talent for the Trend
To deliver the desired consumer e-commerce experience, some B2B companies are going to great lengths to hire staff with B2C experience and turn current employees into digital specialists. Yet many are having trouble finding the right operational and managerial prospects, which has resulted in their lack of progress in evolving the businesses as needed.

But these companies can’t afford to wait much longer or they risk both their sales and survival. With so much of their bottom line on the line, B2B e-commerce companies need to start evolving their businesses by reorganizing their websites to serve their business clients as consumers.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438512016-11-28T14:08:27Z2016-11-29T14:01:28ZWhile there’s no need to fear Google’s soon-to-deploy mobile-first indexing, this event marks the formal transition to a genuine “mobile first” world of search. Business owners globally need to be aware of several considerations and make preparations accordingly. With the launch of the mobile-first index, Google will be creating and ranking its organic results based on...

]]>While there’s no need to fear Google’s soon-to-deploy mobile-first indexing, this event marks the formal transition to a genuine “mobile first” world of search. Business owners globally need to be aware of several considerations and make preparations accordingly.

With the launch of the mobile-first index, Google will be creating and ranking its organic results based on the mobile version of a website’s content. Considering that more than 50% of all search takes place on mobile devices, this makes sense as a practical advancement for creating results that will satisfy the needs of mobile search users.

That being said, it could be a profound departure from the traditional signals that have influenced desktop search results. Google has crawled the web from a “desktop” point of view for more than a decade, leveraging more than 200 ranking factors that have shifted in precedence based on updates to the core ranking algorithm. While the ranking factors evaluated for mobile websites were, for the most part, treated as concurrent with desktop, it’s not explicitly clear how that will play out in a genuinely mobile search environment.

What’s peculiar about the transition is that Google, so far, has been adamant that business owners without a mobile website shouldn’t worry. While it’s clear that Google is putting more emphasis on the mobile variation of a website, it will crawl the desktop variation just the same. Google said, “If you only have a desktop site, we’ll continue to index your desktop site just fine, even if we’re using a mobile user agent to view the site.”

That certainly answers the question regarding indexation, but it doesn’t directly address concerns about how links and content will be treated. In many instances, links and content on mobile websites (such as a dedicated mobile version) can be different from those acquired on the actual site (this is not pertinent to responsive websites—only to dedicated mobile). Since mobile websites tend to have lighter content than desktop variations, that may present a problem for SEO-conscious business owners. Google has made it clear that it will look primarily at the mobile version of a website, which could be an indicator that content-heavy desktop variations of specific pages may not get the weight they deserve (in the context of page-level relevancy signals). A responsive website design is obviously the immediate solution to this potential problem.

While page-level relevancy between mobile variations of websites and desktop variations are concurrent, the other major question is the mobile-first index’s impact on legacy rankings. Both Gary Iles and Paul Haar from Google have indicated that mobile-first indexing should not change the overall rankings (emphasis on “should”). Both Google representatives alluded to the point that the rollout wouldn’t have any detectable change (that’s a best-case scenario). While this is all speculative, it makes sense from a user perspective since, traditionally, Google performs extensive testing before rolling out substantial changes to its results. It’s rare for Google to suddenly implement a change that would cause profound negative repercussions for users.

One of the other predominant questions in the SEO community is whether the deployment of the mobile-first index will catalyze the “mobile-friendly ranking boost” that was technically put into place following last year’s Mobile Friendly Update. Most business owners reported minimal, if any, impact from that ranking boost, but that doesn’t mean the impact won’t be more substantial following the full launch of the mobile-first index.

Google has been clear that content that’s not considered “mobile friendly” will not rank well. That will probably remain the case in the new index and amplify negative repercussions for non-mobile friendly websites. To that point, business owners will essentially need to become more vigilant in ensuring that their web experience is genuinely mobile friendly, according to Google’s specifications; the best way to do this is to use the “Fetch and Render” tool in Google Search Console. Specifying the mobile:smartphone user agent and inspecting various pages within the primary navigation paths of the website is the most effective technique to identify if mobile usability or rendering issues are present. Business owners can also use the Mobile Friendliness Testing Tool, which evaluates a website as a whole.

So the good news is, if a website passes the “mobile friendliness threshold,” it’s likely that performance will remain strong following the deployment of the mobile-first index. In the context of ranking signals, however, these will emanate from the mobile version of the site (it doesn’t matter if the website is responsive). Google has traditionally ranked the mobile version of a website based on signals from the desktop version of a website. This is expected to completely change, as Google will be using the mobile version of the website—exclusively—to detect various ranking signals. In that scenario, the page speed of a mobile website will ultimately determine the rankings of the mobile site and the desktop site.

Google will likely gather its page-level ranking signals from the mobile site as well, which means content elements that are stripped out of a desktop site for enhanced user experience on a mobile site could be detrimental to the contextual relevancy of the page as a whole.

Given that scenario, there is mounting concern that link signals, as they contribute to rankings, could be affected. Exclusively mobile content, by nature, tends to have fewer links than desktop content. That could cause a shift in cumulative organic visibility for websites with strong desktop experiences and toned-down mobile site experiences. Despite Google still being in a “test” mode with the mobile-first index, it’s not clear how the impact of link signals will be affected by the rollout. Google’s Gary Iles said in a recent interview, “I don’t want to say anything definite about links yet. It’s too early for that because things are very much in motion.”

To be thoroughly prepared for the deployment of the mobile-first index, business owners need to methodically evaluate how effectively and practically their web experience is engineered to perform on mobile devices. During the Mobile Friendliness Update, business owners were essentially forced to have a mobile version of their website—otherwise, they risked losing organic visibility.

In this scenario, business owners need to factor how well their mobile site experience performs and how well the mobile site experience follows SEO best practices. At the top level, business owners should ask:

Am I currently leveraging a responsive website design that’s thoroughly intuitive and satisfying for users?

Is there valuable content that appears differently on the mobile variation of my website?

Do I need to invest in re-architecting or envisioning a stronger mobile web experience for my audience?

Is there anything I can do to enhance the speed of my mobile website experience?

While a thoughtfully designed mobile website should deliver an engaging, intuitive, and memorable user experience, the reality is that most business owners have yet to fully embrace the “mobile first” mentality. Smartphone use is ubiquitous in our culture and has entirely transformed the behaviors of human-to human-communication. By not going absolutely out of one’s way to ensure a seamless and satisfying mobile website experience, it seems the repercussion will be a mild to moderate sacrifice of visibility in Google’s results.

The mobile-first index will likely be fully deployed before the end of Q1 2017, which means there’s still plenty of time to adapt. At the minimum, now is the best time for business owners to take a step back and critically evaluate how effectively engineered their mobile web experience is for their target audiences.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438582016-11-28T14:05:46Z2016-11-28T14:05:46ZToday, a negative online review from a hotel guest opens the door to fewer future bookings. The popularity of consumer-advisory travel sites like Expedia and TripAdvisor has given the opinions of hotel guests much greater importance in the travel planning decision. Research has found that a single bad guest review can far outweigh other decision-making...

]]>Today, a negative online review from a hotel guest opens the door to fewer future bookings. The popularity of consumer-advisory travel sites like Expedia and TripAdvisor has given the opinions of hotel guests much greater importance in the travel planning decision. Research has found that a single bad guest review can far outweigh other decision-making factors for many prospective guests. Poor reviews can cause travelers to choose another hotel. As a result, the threat of negative online reviews is serious enough that hotels must make customer satisfaction their very top priority. HotelMarketing.com reported on how the risk of bad online reviews is leading hotels to go to greater lengths to keep guests totally satisfied.

While poor online reviews are a danger to hotels of all sizes, they have the greatest impact on smaller hotels because these properties tend to have fewer online reviews to be read. This places higher importance on each and every guest comment.

Even research has shown that hotels can’t afford to ignore negative online reviews and they’ve led to positive improvements in a hotel’s customer service. Now, hospitality professionals are working harder than ever to soothe unhappy guests and deal with problems face-to-face before they result in scathing reviews. And when hotels anticipate an issue that may disrupt the guest experience, more are notifying guests ahead of their arrival to reduce the risk of a bad review.

In addition, many hotels have developed special systems to deal with the threat of a negative online review. Some encourage guests to submit reviews to the hotel on paper or via email before their stay is over. This alerts the hotel of a possible problem and allows them to remedy the situation before they read about it online.

And when a negative online review is posted, rather than ignore it like many did in the past, hotels are now contacting the guest to apologize for the issue and offering a free stay at any time. Some hotels are relying on personal telephone contact, while others are simply sending email requests or surveys to guests who left poor reviews.

Hotels will be happy to know that respected review sites like TripAdvisor have automated tools to analyze every review and detect questionable content, They currently have a staff of more than 300 people worldwide dedicated to reviewing guest reviews to ensure the validity of a complaint before it’s posted and poses a problem.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437682016-11-22T16:27:48Z2016-11-23T14:01:53ZDigital data has made a world of difference in how travel brands market to travelers and manage their operations. As a result, it can be challenging for travel marketers to navigate through all of the digital options and develop the ideal business strategies. In anticipation of The Smart Travel Data Summit in late November, 100...

]]>Digital data has made a world of difference in how travel brands market to travelers and manage their operations. As a result, it can be challenging for travel marketers to navigate through all of the digital options and develop the ideal business strategies. In anticipation of The Smart Travel Data Summit in late November, 100 senior travel executives were asked to share their industry insights in the Smart Travel Data Survey 2016. The results were compiled and reveal the importance of revenue management, data, and analytics in travel both today and tomorrow. EyeForTravel.com shared the key findings to show where the travel industry is heading.

Check In on What Should Matter Most
According to Eye for Travel, there are certain factors that travel brands should prioritize in 2017. Their greatest focus should be on:

Marketing analytics

Data collection

Revenue management

But, travel brands must also pay attention to:

Improving customer understanding

Strengthening consumer loyalty

Increasing ancillary sales

Eliminating the commoditization concerns of distribution partners

Discover the Future Financial Focus
When it comes to the financial focus of travel brands, more than 60% of respondents expected their revenue management budget to increase over the next three years, while around 25% said their budgets would stay the same.

And in terms of where travel brands plan to invest their budgets, the information showed:

32% in distribution technology

32% in infrastructure

20% in marketing technology

10% in revenue management technology

6% in other

The 10 Topics Travel Brands Are Excited to Explore
A number of topics and trends that travel brands are looking forward to exploring are as follows:

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=438092016-11-22T16:25:05Z2016-11-22T16:25:05ZThere’s a new breed of social influencer that’s lapping up the attention of consumers. Dogs have become the scene-stealing stars of Instagram and led to the emergence of “dogfluencers.” These canine celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers and can earn up to $3,500 for a single promoted social media post. Instagram users find these...

]]>There’s a new breed of social influencer that’s lapping up the attention of consumers. Dogs have become the scene-stealing stars of Instagram and led to the emergence of “dogfluencers.” These canine celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers and can earn up to $3,500 for a single promoted social media post. Instagram users find these cuddly creatures so cute that they can’t resist sharing these photos. Dogfluencers are making such a strong impact on consumers that now many major brands like American Express and United Airlines have partnered with these canines to promote their products on social media. TheGlobeandMail.com shared more on how brands are now chasing after dogfluencers for their social media marketing power.

Part of the power of dogfluencers lies in the emotional connection they inspire. After all, emotions are a major part of purchasing decisions.

Another aspect of their appeal is the great effort their owners put into building an Instagram presence and following. Industry experts say that dogfluencer accounts spend just as much time as their human counterparts on posting photos, engaging with followers, and developing their brands.

As a result, dogfluencers have captured the attention of brands, which has led many to contract these canines to promote their social media content in creative, compelling ways.

But brands aren’t the only ones drooling over these dogs. Management agencies are also vying to represent these canine celebrities. The popularity of these pups inspired the creation of the first management company exclusively for animal social influencers called The Dog Agency. This New York City agency has already partnered dogs with powerhouses like 20th Century Fox, Google, and Barneys New York.

While traditional human influencers will maintain their promotional power, it’s dogfluencers that now have brands wagging their tails with excitement.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437142016-11-18T15:44:38Z2016-11-21T14:01:27ZAre your holiday social media posts starting to feel as stale as a re-gifted fruitcake? If your brand shares the same things every year, it’s time to shake things up. Some 91% of companies say they send/post holiday messages. That means consumers’ social feeds and inboxes are completely flooded with themed posts by brands. To...

]]>Are your holiday social media posts starting to feel as stale as a re-gifted fruitcake? If your brand shares the same things every year, it’s time to shake things up.

Some 91% of companies say they send/post holiday messages. That means consumers’ social feeds and inboxes are completely flooded with themed posts by brands. To break through the clutter, it’s essential to try new approaches.

What can you do differently? Luckily, there are a number of effective holiday social media tactics that haven’t been overused by marketers. In particular, these seven fresh ideas are great ways to spice up your holiday posts this year:

1. Create a360° Holiday-Themed Video
One of the great recent additions to social networks is the 360° video option. This engaging format gives users the ability to pan/rotate and experience scenes from different angles (see Facebook’s overview here and some YouTube examples here).

This season, you can use 360° videos to make your posts much more immersive. This can be done by filming a holiday-themed narrative with multiple storylines or by simply putting a camera in an interesting location (for inspiration, check out this this captivating Grand Central Terminal piece).

An added benefit of 360° clips is that they allow your brand to capitalize on one of the hot technologies this year: virtual reality. With a dedicated VR headset, or with a simple add-on to an existing device, consumers can experience your videos by moving their gaze rather than a mouse. That’s truly a cutting-edge holiday content approach.

2. Develop a Custom Snapchat Geofilter
Is your company holding big seasonal sales or other events? Do you have physical locations that you want to encourage visits to? If so, developing an On-Demand Snapchat Geofilter could be a worthy investment this holiday season (here’s a quick primer on how to do it).

These overlays, which are provided as options within defined physical areas, are a fun way for consumers to share that they’re interacting with your brand. You can encourage visitors to take pics of their holiday gift hauls, or to just snap some silly selfies with Santa.

The power lies in the exposure. Snapchat’s addictive filters are the ultimate example of modern word-of-mouth marketing. By providing a small, quick diversion, your brand can receive a big, long-lasting boost.

3. Post Disappearing Holiday Coupons
Another interesting, engaging Snapchat tactic is to create “disappearing” posts that include offers/discounts. This can now be done via the Instagram Stories feature, too, which also features content that only stays live for a set period of time.

While engaging on Snapchat/Instagram Stories can sometimes feel complex for brands, this approach is fairly straightforward to execute. Simply create some sort of coupon image and include it in a message that says something akin to: “Screenshot this snap and present it to the cashier by 12/1/16 for your special holiday discount!” (you can see an example of a brand taking this exact approach here).

These offers tend to work well because they create limited-time urgency. Moreover, they work on two levels: disappearing coupons boost sales and also help to grow follower count. It’s a double win for your brand.

4. Use Pinterest Rich Pins for Holiday Gift Ideas
It’s hard to overstate the amount of holiday-related brainstorming and sharing that occurs on Pinterest. According to data from the service, more than 38 million people save 92 million gift pins to the social network each year.

While most brands understand that creating Pinterest content for their products/services can be beneficial, many don’t know that they can garner even more engagement with Rich Pins. This feature allows marketers to include key information, such as location data, purchase links, etc., directly in the pins.

For companies, a major advantage of Rich Pins is that they help close the gap between browsing and action. By being able to directly push to e-commerce or a physical location, you can convert Pinterest holiday wish lists directly into visits and revenue.

5. Host a Holiday-Themed Twitter Chat
Marketers sometimes forget this simple fact: their staffs are full of interesting insights and stories.

Consumers are often in desperate need of advice this time of year, and your brand’s employees might be well poised to provide that. With a Twitter chat, you can quickly and easily answer seasonal questions about everything from gift ideas to delivery, returns, and sales (check out this Twitter chat how-to guide for best practices).

You also don’t have to be purely practical with your chat. A simple behind-the-scenes look at how your brand is tackling the holidays (like this example from FedEx), can go a long way, too. Sometimes all people want is a little distraction from the madness.

6. Showcase Gift Ideas in Instagram Carousel Ads
Love the visual aspect of Instagram but wish you could display more photos and information in each post? Then Carousel Ads may be perfect for your brand this holiday season.

These paid units allow you to include three to five images in one place. They’re perfect for showcasing a related set of gift ideas, especially for companies with beautiful photography/products.

One of the best parts of Carousel Ads is that they also integrate calls to action. Each image allows for a short hyperlinked CTA (“Learn More,” “Shop Now,” etc.) that can go to an external page. It’s a great way to connect social media to sales by sending consumers directly to the website page/product page you want them to visit (check out this case study to see the ads in action).

7. Inspire with a Facebook Live Charity Stream
Finally, for many brands, the holidays are a time for looking beyond business goals and doing something to help others.

If your company is participating in a charity event—a volunteering day, a gift donation drive, etc.—Facebook Live is a great way to showcase it (check out some best practices here). By live streaming the effort, you can highlight any non-profit partners you’re working with and recognize employees who are participating.

Moreover, a Facebook Live post can help to inspire action. Consumers may see the stream of your event and want to engage as well. Ultimately, that’s using social media in the true spirit of the season.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437092016-11-18T20:24:36Z2016-11-18T20:04:36ZGet ready marketers: winter is coming. The holiday season is quickly approaching, and with it will come the annual flood of themed products, messaging, sales, and content from brands. As you gear up for this most wonderful (and busy) time of year, what should you be thinking about? Which changes in consumer behavior could have...

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and with it will come the annual flood of themed products, messaging, sales, and content from brands.

As you gear up for this most wonderful (and busy) time of year, what should you be thinking about? Which changes in consumer behavior could have a big impact on sales and engagement?

We sorted through major consumer surveys and analyst research reports covering the past two holiday seasons to find out. What emerged were these five key trends to watch in 2016:

1. Timing Really Is Everything
Yesmail Interactive recently undertook the massive task of examining data from millions of holiday-themed emails sent by brands in 2014 and 2015.

One of the main learnings from the analysis was that the timing of campaigns significantly impacts engagement levels.

For example, Christmas-themed campaigns sent in the two weeks immediately before the holiday had 3% higher open rates, on average, compared with non-themed messages. In contrast, Christmas campaigns sent earlier, in the first two weeks of December, had 6% lower open rates.

A key thing to note is that these ebbs and flows in engagement varied depending on the specific holiday/date. For Cyber Monday emails, open rates were lower than average on the days after; in contrast, for Black Friday, open rates were actually higher on the days following.

What this means is that you should think long and hard about the timing of your holiday campaigns. Deploying them earlier or later could have a huge impact.

2. We Live in an Omnichannel World
Have holiday shoppers abandoned traditional retail channels for digital ones?

For the most part, not yet. According to U.S. Census data, 92% of all fourth quarter sales in 2015 occurred in brick-and-mortar stores.

However, while digital retail remains small relative to in-person, it’s growing rapidly—online’s share of fourth quarter sales jumped by 47% between 2011 and 2015.

The adoption of digital tools to aid with making purchase decisions has been even broader. A UPS poll found that 69% of consumers say they use their mobile phones for shopping-related activities such as comparing prices and searching for coupons.

Put simply, holiday shopping has become truly omnichannel.

Some 71% of consumers say they purchase their winter season gifts using a combination of in-store and online channels. That’s why it’s necessary to focus on integrating your digital and non-digital offerings; a seamless experience is increasingly what consumers demand.

Not necessarily. A Marin Software survey found that 69% of consumers say they actually prefer gift cards to physical gifts.

That is part of a wider trend of changing tastes. Increasingly, people want more freedom to purchase what they want, when they want it—hence the love of gift cards.

They also increasingly like intangibles over physical objects. An NRF poll found that more than one-third (36%) of 18–24 year olds gave experiences (trips, spa visits, etc.) as gifts last year, and more than half (55%) say want to receive experiences as gifts.

If you want to appeal to consumers—especially younger ones—this holiday season and in the future, it’s important to keep these evolving preferences in mind. It may be time to focus on your gift card program and any experiential offerings.

4. Procrastinators and Deal-Seekers Are Plentiful
Are most holiday shoppers early birds?

Nope. Google/Ipsos data shows that only 48% of consumers have all of their gift purchases completed by Cyber Monday.

Why do people wait? Consumers say they hold off for multiple reasons, including because they’re still weighing their choices between gifts (44.8%), because friends and family haven’t given them enough ideas (29%), because they’re anticipating better deals (22%), and because they’re simply procrastinating (21%).

Moreover, 66% of holiday shoppers say they check out sales after December 25, with 47% visiting stores in person during the week following Christmas and 43% shopping online.

Given that behavior, it’s important to not let up with your holiday messaging. Appeal to early shoppers, for sure, but then also continue through the heart of the season and beyond. Those last-minute shoppers are plentiful—and also often highly motivated.

5. Holiday Shopping Can Be Overwhelming
Finally, don’t forget this simple fact: holiday shopping can be stressful and difficult for many people.

In fact, some 17% of consumers say the experience is so bad that they actively dread/intensely dislike looking for holiday presents.

Why is this? Partially it’s because of traditional issues such as the expense and the crowds. However, it’s also due to a very modern problem: there are so many new products and ways to shop, that consumers feel overwhelmed.

That’s why searches on mobile for the “best” products are up 50%, according to Google data; people desperately want help sorting through all their options so they can quickly find the right gifts.

So if you want to please consumers this holiday season, do something very simple: make their lives easier.

How? The best way is by giving quick access to the information people need to make decisions. For example, consumers say the features they value most in e-commerce mobile apps are product reviews, high-quality images, and good search features.

This sort of functionality may not be flashy, but it’s what consumers value. In other words, it’s a gift that your audiences will truly appreciate this holiday season.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437272016-11-18T15:00:33Z2016-11-18T15:00:33ZSince research from TOPO shows that less than 24% of prospects actually respond to promotional emails, sales reps must open their eyes to the problem of why their emails are being ignored and then open their minds to ways to improve their email response rate. With sales reps depending on email more than ever, they...

]]>Since research from TOPO shows that less than 24% of prospects actually respond to promotional emails, sales reps must open their eyes to the problem of why their emails are being ignored and then open their minds to ways to improve their email response rate. With sales reps depending on email more than ever, they can’t afford to ignore why prospects are overlooking their emails. Fortunately, a recent study by Boomerang disclosed why some emails earn responses while others are tossed in the trash. Hubspot.com shared these findings to help lead sales reps toward higher email response rates.

1. Some Emotion is Effective: The study showed that expressing a moderate amount of positivity or negativity led to 10% to 15% more responses than totally neutral emails. But extreme emotional expressions led to the same reduced responses seen with neutral emails.

2. Emails with 50 to 125 Words Had 50% Response Rates: Longer is not stronger and less isn’t always best when it comes to the wording of emails. Apparently, the optimal email length is between 50 and 125 words, since these emails were opened by an impressive 50% of recipients. While shorter is clearly sweeter, realize that being too brief is bad. Emails with ten words or fewer only got a response 36% of the time.

3. Emails Written at a Third-Grade Reading Level Were at the Head of the Class: Interestingly, emails written at this elementary level scored a 36% higher open rate than emails written at a college reading level. Yet college-level correspondence still performed 17% better than emails written at a high school reading level. In addition, casual, relaxed emails are best for invoking a response.

4. Ask a Question to Get a Response: It’s considered a best practice to pose a question in each and every sales email to get a response, but few salespeople know just how many questions to ask. The study showed that recipients were 50% more likely to respond to an email with one to three questions than to an email without any questions. Clearly, it doesn’t hurt to ask when it comes to getting an email response and ultimately a higher email open rate.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437592016-11-15T18:46:54Z2016-11-15T17:07:25ZLuxury hotels are known for formality and pomp, but the new breed of luxury hospitality has led many to adopt in-house pets as part of their guest experience. Today, many luxury travelers no longer want the formal service traditionally offered by high-end hotels. Instead, they want a relaxing, personal experience and an emotional connection to...

]]>Luxury hotels are known for formality and pomp, but the new breed of luxury hospitality has led many to adopt in-house pets as part of their guest experience. Today, many luxury travelers no longer want the formal service traditionally offered by high-end hotels. Instead, they want a relaxing, personal experience and an emotional connection to the hotel. To meet this new need, some luxury hotels are opening their doors to on-site pets as a way to personally connect and create an emotional bond with guests, which far exceeds the usual offerings that hotels typically use to attract customers. And now hotels with in-house pets say the animals are working wonders for sales, brand awareness, hotel marketing success, and customer loyalty. TheGlobeandMail.com shared more on how these hotel pets are elevating the guest experience in a very unique way, which is what today’s luxury travelers ultimately look for.

These pets are proving to be popular with guests all over the world. In fact, many have expressed that the main reason they choose a hotel is because of its on-site pets. Hotels report that dozens of pictures of pets are taken by guests each day and then posted on Facebook and Instagram, which provide a steady stream of free publicity and awareness for the hotel. And the Fairmont in Arizona saw its J.D. Power rating rise a whopping 11 points over the past year and they believe that their dogs were a major factor.

One of the first luxury hotels to launch a pet program was the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. chain in 2001. The brand slowly added pets to many of its properties in the United States, Canada, and Kenya and has steadily increased its number of pets due to their enormous popularity and value.

Fairmont’s pets happily greet every guest as they enter the lobby and make them feel at home. But Fairmont isn’t the only luxury hotel brand making pets part of the guest experience.

Recently, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Inc. introduced dogs into many of its lobbies. The hotel considers them part of their staff, affectionately giving each the title of “director of pet relations.”

At the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. resort in Colorado, guests are greeted by the hotel’s two canine ambassadors. One is a Saint Bernard named Bachelor and the other is a Bernese Mountain Dog known as Belle.

While these hotels have only introduced house pets recently, The Algonquin Hotel in New York City has had cats for nearly 90 years, ever a since a stray made himself at home on the property. Now, the hotel’s main feline ambassador is named Matilda and she’s so popular with guests that she has almost 10,000 Facebook friends and more than 1,000 Instagram followers. Matilda’s popularity has led the New York hotel to offer a special “Friends Of Matilda” package that features a welcome letter from the cat, a fun book on feline health and beauty, and a plush doll resembling the beloved cat.

While it isn’t inexpensive for hotels to have pets considering their veterinary, grooming, feeding, and daily care costs, the payoff is priceless in terms of the value they provide and the benefits they bring to the luxury hotel experience.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437632016-11-14T14:27:29Z2016-11-14T14:27:29ZSurprisingly, many healthcare organizations still don’t treat patient relationships with the urgency they deserve. But the healthcare industry needs to focus on building better patient relationships by emphasizing the patient’s personal experience and offering opportunities for direct connection with organizations. To help providers have healthier patient relationships, Business2Community.com shared four healthcare marketing strategies. 1. Prescribe...

]]>Surprisingly, many healthcare organizations still don’t treat patient relationships with the urgency they deserve. But the healthcare industry needs to focus on building better patient relationships by emphasizing the patient’s personal experience and offering opportunities for direct connection with organizations. To help providers have healthier patient relationships, Business2Community.com shared four healthcare marketing strategies.

1. Prescribe Awareness Campaigns
Patients need to be aware of what an organization offers in order to take advantage of its various resources. That’s why it’s important to run healthcare marketing campaigns that provide patients with detailed information about the organization and its many options for care. In addition to educating patients, this also earns their trust. And by implementing paperless medical records systems and sharing patient stories with their consent, it demonstrates the organization’s transparency and dedication to serving the needs of patients.

2. Treat Current Patients to Social Engagement
The way to make patients feel more connected to the organization is by giving them opportunities to connect via social media. Along with facilitating patient engagement, social media also provides greater visibility. Healthcare marketing specialists can promote social engagement by posting contests, content, and hashtags that inspire patient involvement. But remember that a strong social presence needs to be maintained by continually providing fresh content and rapidly responding to all social feedback.

3. Operate Local Outreach Programs
Participating in local events demonstrates the healthcare organization’s interest in community involvement and increases its visibility. Whether hosting an event, becoming one of its sponsors, or taking part as a speaker, these are valuable opportunities to show commitment to the community while building brand awareness. Then, the organization’s involvement can be shared through press releases and content to gain even more recognition.

4. Share How the Organization Cares
People love reading stories about others on social media. Luckily, healthcare organizations have an abundance of uplifting, informative, and powerful stories to tell. Share the latest healthcare news, organizational updates, and compelling recovery stories that patients are willing to share. These announcements show the organization’s strong commitment to earning the trust of patients.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437572016-11-11T17:02:38Z2016-11-11T17:02:38ZThe holiday season is here and digital advertisers believe that social platforms like Google and Facebook have the most to give to their holiday marketing campaigns. With advertisers planning to spend an average of 62% of their holiday budgets on digital marketing efforts this year, the 2016 Holiday Advertising Survey Report from Kenshoo and direct...

]]>The holiday season is here and digital advertisers believe that social platforms like Google and Facebook have the most to give to their holiday marketing campaigns. With advertisers planning to spend an average of 62% of their holiday budgets on digital marketing efforts this year, the 2016 Holiday Advertising Survey Report from Kenshoo and direct response agency OrionCKB showed that Facebook and Google were at the top of their list for their seasonal marketing spend. MediaPost.com shared more on why advertisers are feeling that Facebook and Google are the greatest gifts to their holiday marketing campaigns.

Search Marketing Presents Many Opportunities
The report surveyed both retail and e-commerce advertisers on their holiday ad spending plan to maximize sales and revenue. The results revealed:

71% planned to spend more on Facebook this year than they did last year.

75% of in-house marketers shared that their Google spend was higher year-over-year for 2016.

Around 50% of outsourced marketers planned to increase their spend with Google and on search.

74% said that Google Search Keywords ads were very important to their holiday marketing, which may be attributed to Google’s Expanded Text Ads, which allow for 50% more space, twice the number of headlines, and nearly three times more characters than in prior years.

61% named Product Listing Ads (PLAs) as essential to their holiday marketing efforts.

Social Media Marketing Unwraps Endless Possibilities
Advertisers believed that social media marketing was worth just as much of their attention and spend as search. Just as with search, the amount of the advertising budgets for Facebook varied by whether the company’s marketing was in-house or outsourced. Companies with in-house marketing teams planned to direct 36% of their social media advertising budget to Facebook, while those with outsourced teams were devoting more than 50% of their social ad spend to Facebook.

The Happiest Time of the Year
And while digital marketing experts agree that both Google and Facebook are worthwhile ways to reach holiday consumers, they disagree on when the holiday season actually begins.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=436572016-11-09T21:45:17Z2016-11-10T14:01:50ZToday, millions of consumers and B2B marketers are finding that content marketing is a direct link to success. As a result, its usage is increasing around the world and this growth is expected to continue. But unlike some marketing strategies that deliver immediate results, content marketing is a long-term process. So many people are drawn...

]]>Today, millions of consumers and B2B marketers are finding that content marketing is a direct link to success. As a result, its usage is increasing around the world and this growth is expected to continue. But unlike some marketing strategies that deliver immediate results, content marketing is a long-term process. So many people are drawn to it because it’s been proven to work. And it’s more valuable than ever considering that it’s become more challenging for marketers to reach consumers in this age of ad blockers and DVRs that let consumers avoid all ads. But SearchEngineJournal.com explained why content marketing is worth the wait and offered five simple steps for reaching results more quickly.

Content marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to connect with consumers; especially now that connecting has become a major challenge with the widespread use of ad blocking software and DVRs that block many marketing messages. But while consumers don’t want to be bombarded with irrelevant content, they still crave quality information on topics of interest to them and appreciate added value. And content offers both of these benefits, without hard sells, scams, or other frustrating factors. As a result, content marketing is capable of greatly increasing conversions, driving website traffic, and building loyal brand relationships. In fact, research has shown that content marketing leaders earn almost eight times more website traffic than their competitors.

Along with yielding a higher success rate, content marketing also costs dramatically less than more traditional marketing methods. Studies have shown that content marketing costs around 62% less than outbound marketing, yet generates three times as many leads.

With all of these advantages, content marketing is well worth the span of time it takes to reap results and rewards. To start on the content marketing journey, marketers simply need to follow these five steps.

5 Steps for Leveraging Long-Term Content Marketing

Make Frequent Publishing a Priority
More frequent blogging is an effective way for brands to generate more followers. That’s because it helps improve a brand’s search rankings by giving Google more pages to index, as well as because it provides content for the SERPs, which increases the chance that readers will find and consume the content. Consider that studies have shown that companies that published more than 15 times a month generated more than three times the traffic of their competition. But how often a brand should blog depends on its preferences, goals, current traffic, distribution platforms, and the kind of content the brand wants to publish.

Optimize All Content for SEO
The way to rank higher in search is by optimizing every piece of published content. This includes fine-tuning all of the meta content, images, relevant long-tail keywords, quality links, and alt information. By optimizing all of these aspects, it’s easier for search engines to interpret content, which leads to appearing much higher in search results.

Post Evergreen Content More Often
Posting timely or trending content can generate immediate exposure, but the key to crafting a solid content marketing strategy is regularly publishing evergreen content that holds its value for years to come. It’s best to tailor evergreen content to the topics of greatest interest and relevance to the target audience. After deciding on a topic, in-depth content must be crafted that provides lasting value to both current and new readers. Continually producing evergreen content will continue to generate audiences.

Focus on Quality, Followed by Quantity
When it comes to content creation, many marketers simply believe that more is always better. But the truth is, creating better content can reap more ROI. While a steady stream of content is important, the quality of the content should always be the first priority.

Stay Persistent and Patient
With the demand for instant gratification today, many marketers get frustrated that their content marketing efforts take time to deliver results. But it’s essential to remember that success doesn’t happen overnight. Only after publishing high-quality content over a period of time will the readers, results, and revenue finally emerge.

]]>Joanne Del Gigantehttp://www.mdgadvertising.comhttp://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/?p=437472016-11-08T21:33:35Z2016-11-08T20:01:32ZE-commerce businesses anxiously wait all year for Black Friday because it offers the gift of enormous sales. That’s led practically every company to leverage this special time by extending the shopping period over a few days, as well as across all digital devices. This is especially important today as more consumers are shopping on mobile...

]]>E-commerce businesses anxiously wait all year for Black Friday because it offers the gift of enormous sales. That’s led practically every company to leverage this special time by extending the shopping period over a few days, as well as across all digital devices. This is especially important today as more consumers are shopping on mobile and other digital devices, and expect greater ease and speed than visiting a brick-and-mortar store. If a website doesn’t provide an optimal mobile shopping experience, companies risk losing these vital seasonal sales. To help e-commerce businesses make their entire mobile shopping experience merry and bright every time, SmartBrief.com made a list of three mobile musts that consumers are wishing for in online shopping.

1. Optimize Websites for Mobile
With the ubiquity of mobile, more and more consumers are using mobile devices to shop online. Today, consumers expect ease and efficiency in their mobile experience, so they must be able to quickly view, navigate, and find what they need on a website. If the site isn’t optimized for mobile, consumers will get frustrated quickly and visit another site. Since research has shown that consumers frequently research products via mobile before buying later on a desktop, retailers need to ensure that the entire mobile shopping process is simple, seamless, and satisfying across all digital devices—or risk losing sales.

2. Optimize for Perfect Performance
Industry experts agree that the performance and speed of a website, especially how fast pages load, can make or break e-commerce sales both on mobile and desktop. That’s because consumers view online shopping as a fast and convenient alternative to waiting around in stores. If they have to wait for a website to load, they quickly get frustrated and visit another site. To keep consumers shopping on the site, it must perform perfectly on all digital platforms.

3. Optimize Sites for Sales
According to research, 70% of consumers will abandon an online cart full of products if the purchasing process is difficult. That’s why it’s essential to optimize a website for every single stage of the buyer’s journey.